


SNEAK PEAK: PULL OUR BODIES OUT OF THE SNOW

by exotrauma



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Preview, previously posted on a different account but don't worry its the same person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 00:58:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18187748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exotrauma/pseuds/exotrauma
Summary: Karpov had once said that the Russians had nothing but their winter – but one year, they did not have even that...On the 21st of December 1991, twenty-eight spiders and one soldier defect from the KGB and HYDRA, escaping from the Red Room into a Russian winter with nothing but the clothing on their backs and the knives concealed in their shoes.They last 379 days.





	SNEAK PEAK: PULL OUR BODIES OUT OF THE SNOW

**Author's Note:**

> This is a preview of a WIP; I'm a student and generally busy with life so IDK if I'll actually ever finish this, but I thought I'd put this up here anyway. It was previously posted on a different account but don't worry - I'm the author and the other account was also mine. No copyright legal cases to be found here, folks!

They dance until their toes bleed; their nails turn black and fall off. Madame B tells them they are made of marble – she is wrong. They are iron, they are steel. The very best spiders are solid gold.  
They learn French, English, Spanish, languages and culture to survive on both sides of the Iron Curtain. They learn how to tell when someone is lying, or telling the truth, or telling a lie they believe to be the truth.  
They are blindfolded, taken to a safe house a weeks’ walk away from the Room, and given four days to return without being seen. The last girl back is let loose in the forest with a pistol and a single bullet, and they hunt her down. They are told to forget her name, her face, her laughter and her tears.  
Her name was Anya. She was the best at French.  
Over time, as their muscles and minds strengthen, Anya fades from the spiders’ memories, as did the other dead girls; some who had died by their sisters’ hands, some by failed HYDRA experiments. Some by accident. And some, the true cause hushed up, names spoken only in the dead of night where the hidden cameras and microphones can’t hear them – some who had taken their own lives. Amongst themselves, they mourned. Amongst themselves, scornfully (and perhaps, just a small amount, with envy), the spiders think: _weak_. Not fit to be a Widow.  
-  
It’s a nondescript day when the spiders first meet the _Soldat_. Though he is tall, bulky almost, the first thing the spiders think when they see him is _small_. This is a man – if he is to be allowed such a generous term – who takes up as little room as possible. A dog who knows the length of its leash, and what is promised if it strays outside of its cage.  
His hair is shoulder length, dark and stringy. Though he speaks – when he does speak, which is infrequently and quietly – in fluent Russian, with no trace of accent, something of his face speaks of elsewhere. There is a purpling bruise on his jaw. He leans very slightly to the left, as if dragged down by some indomitable weight. His handlers remain alert around him, even in situations where he is the very picture of docility. This tells the spiders he is dangerous. Of course he is, or else he wouldn’t be here to teach them.  
They are scared of the _Soldat_ , yes, but the handlers say they must learn from him so they do. The spiders already know a person’s weakest points. The _Soldat_ teaches them how to use them to kill. With knives, garrottes, bullets. Fists, fingers, elbows. To use their very bodies as weapons. They learn how to make a death look like an accident, an overdose, a suicide. They learn how to make a corpse send a message – either publicly or known only to their sisters and associates. To lay red herrings and pin the blame on someone else. Drug wars, muggings gone wrong, vehicle crashes. Even, on one memorable occasion, an accident involving a bathtub and a hairdryer. They learn how, even with his considerable stature, the _Soldat_ becomes a shadow. A ghost. They learn when to be invisible, and when it is best to let yourself be seen – just a glimpse, generating rumours and suspicion, fear and tumultuous political climates. Sometimes, ghost stories are more effective than the ghosts themselves.


End file.
